For my reading, I chose How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
1. The general theme in this book is to be selfish. I know this sounds crazy, but to go a little further on that, Scott Adams goes over how in order to be successful and help out friends and family, you have to focus on yourself first. If you are struggling personally but still trying to help out everyone else, it is just a burden to them. Focusing on yourself and your energy ensures that you are happy with the way things are going, regardless of the results, and this continued energy will pay off in the long run because you will never get discouraged. He basically breaks down this book into a bunch of different lessons he learned, including setting up systems for yourself rather than goals and focus on your energy.
2. This book connected with me and what I have been learning in ENT 3003 because it goes along with the fact that we focusing on ourselves in order to be successful. Exercises like the elevator pitch, growing our social capital, and the idea napkin all focus on what we can do on our part to be successful and focuses on our strengths.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, it would be to analyze how comfortable you were with risk and to find what kind of risk you are willing to undertake. In this book, Adams speaks on the fact that everyone has something that they are good at, when analyzing risks, a person would be much more willing to undertake risks when pursuing a career that they have beneficial skills in rather than not. By doing this and looking at the different opportunities that arise from your set of skills, you will be much more comfortable taking risks.
4. I would say the part of the book that differed most from my expectations was people should set up systems for themselves rather than goals. I feel as if most entrepreneurship stories include someone who had specific goals in mind, but Adams describes how you can become very successful by creating a system that you should follow rather than going after concrete goals. Goals are very specific. By setting up a system to follow everyday, it will eventually pay out in the long run due to consistency.
Dang. This is such a key book that if someone takes to heart and not lightly, it could change their life. I agree 100% with creating systems. Systems that are simple! Not too complicated! A system could probably be a morning routine that automatically sets up your day to be successful and grounded for what is to come that day. I really appreciate the time you took to write this book review because although I did not read the book myself, you imparted some wisdom to me and now I can be affirmed in the systems that i have set up for myself to succeed rather than goals that i may be discouraged in when i dont meet them
ReplyDeleteMyles, I chose to review this as one of my peer reviews because we read the same book, and it is interesting to see how someone else interpreted and is choosing to use the information that Scott Adams disclosed in his work. I really like how you related his idea of "selfishness" to this class and its exercises, such as the elevator pitch. We can improve our product as much as we want, but ultimately, success in entrepreneurship comes from personal strengths. Adams talks about focusing on these because this is what we add to our product to enhance its selling ability to customers, and with our elevator pitch(es), we get to see ourselves essentially propose a product and improve based on what other people see as strengths and skills in our argument. In addition, I, too, was surprised by Adams discouraging us from setting goals. I think that it makes sense, though, because goals are usually large and distant from where we are progress-wise, while using a system allows us to incrementally improve without facing disappointment along the way. It takes so much more energy to focus on a goal we've set than systematically progressing and focusing on daily improvement. (I still somewhat see that as a "daily" goal, but I get what Adams is trying to say- essentially, simplify your goals?)
ReplyDeleteHi Myles,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job with your second reading reflection and provided insight into what you read and how it applies to this class. I think this book focuses on an important aspect of life which is to put yourself first sometimes. It can be so easy to appease others and put them above yourself, which can be unhealthy in the business world, but in life itself. I also think you designed a good exercise for the class that relates to the lesson the book is emphasizing.
Hey Myles,
ReplyDeleteI can kind of relate to this, you totally have to be able to take care of your self, in order to care for others. This is something I relate to on multiple levels, as its true Ibn multiple sentiments. For example, a quotes I use a lot from a drag performer RuPaul is, “If you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”. Its 100% you need focus and acceptance of yourself, to be able to do the same to another.